I think I get it?

[Anoyint]

The destruction of the smoke machine and everything that followed was the most poignant part for me. I mean, someone who's arrived on business, destroying something delicate, and rendering the world boring and gray? Everyone looks the same and only cares about money and entertainment? One of the few people remaining from the old world being a combination of a king and a war vehicle?
This particular string of dialogue illuminated it for me a bit:
"The civil authorities got bored and left.
And as my hole in the ground was disappearing, I found I had to leave too. I am here now on this large object.
It may be huge and empty and grey and there may be nothing interesting in the sky or on the ground and nobody to talk to and I may never be able to leave here for thousands of years.
But at least I'm not in prison."
There's definitely themes, there's definitely a storyline. It tastes like the consequences of the endless hunger for capital, but come to think of it, a lot of stories about greed or being alive in the human-made world come to resemble those themes, because they're so familiar. So I'm not sure.

[Hand-zo]

I interpreted the smoke machine (on first/second run, anyways) as potentially representing some kind of mass delusion, aka "smoke and mirrors,"

As soon as reality sets in, the party's over, and the party's all there was.